J. K. Rowling
Harry
Potter: The Controversy
The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling has created quite a stir
among public schools and churches. Some
parents and ministers are afraid these books are teaching wizardry,
witchcraft, and evil to their children, while others think they are books
of harmless fantasy. There
are two sides to this controversy, but I believe that these are just a way
for kids to make-believe and imagine.
The Harry Potter books are about a boy
who learns he has special powers and attends a school called Hogwarts
School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Here
we find trials against good and evil, where good triumphs.
There have been some parents who have protested these books and
have been trying to get them banned from schools.
In Clarence, New York, at Ledgeview Elementary School, Eric Poliner
isn’t allowed to listen when his teacher, Mrs. Cusack, reads Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone aloud to her fifth grade students.
His mom has him sit in the library and study while the other
students listen to the story. Eric
says, “There’s a lot about witchcraft and evil and spells and magic.
I was taught at church that that was not good” (Wilogren).
The reasoning behind the claims made is that some people say that
witchcraft is a religion, and religion shouldn’t be taught in school.
There have been other such challenges to these books filed in at
least eight states (Wilogren).
In an interview with Pam Chatfield, a
second grade teacher from Belleville, Kansas, I found that she has three
students who are not allowed to listen to any of the Potter books.
She said that these students attend the Wesleyan Church in
Belleville. The minister
there has preached against reading and teaching these books to children.
According to Mrs. Chatfield, he says they teach the work of the
devil and that one of the parents believes it “teaches kids to lie and
steal” (Chatfield). Mrs. Chatfield doesn’t believe that it teaches evil.
In fact, she compares the series to The Hobbit and The
Fellowship of the Ring trilogy or Star Wars.
There are many teachers that feel the same way and wish that this
could just be left alone, because the Harry Potter books are getting
children excited about reading again (Chatfield).
It
is confounding to many educators that after a decade of
despair over a
generation lost to video games and television,
the very books that have
lured huge numbers of elementary
and middle school children to the printed
page are themselves
being denounced as dangerous (Wilogren).
In a discussion with eighteen
fifth through eighth grade students, they said they enjoyed the
“detailed descriptions of characters clothing and facial expressions”
and also laughed at the made up names (Wilogren).
One student even said that it was like reading about herself.
She said, “They (the characters) like to do stuff like we do.
They like to get in trouble. They
like to play games, checkers. It’s
just like us” (Wilogren). When
a class of second graders were asked what they thought of Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer’s Stone, most said it is fun to read, not that they
are learning all about wizardry (Chatfield).
Since I am planning on becoming a
teacher, I tend to agree with them on this subject.
I think that some parents just need a scapegoat for their kids
mischief and misbehavior. This happens to be their current solution. I don’t feel
that these books are anymore than just a harmless fantasy for kids to have
fun reading.
- Sarah Ketchum
Works
Cited
Chatfield, Pam.
Personal Interview. 2
November 2001.
Rowling, J. K.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
New York: Scholastic
Inc., 1997.
Wilogren, Jodi.
“Don’t Give Us Little Wizards, the Anti-Potter Parents Cry.” New York Times on
the Web
1 November 1999. 30 October
2001
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http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/110199harry-potter.html.>
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